A delegation like you've never seen before and presents to make the court faint! Which it was, you must know what happened to Lady Shinomi, hilarious! The Lords of the Northern Isles who visited here were all turned around.

In particular, there were animal skins I had never seen before, one, in particular, had all the colours of the rainbow and smelled divine. But above all the skin was as big as the Jade Emperor's throne itself!

You must come to the emperor's court as soon as possible before they leave.

One wonders what other wonders are hidden in the forests of the Amazons.

Letter from Lady Bi Huan to her friend, Gugong Court, Nuon Empire.

As Leila arrived at their camp Aurora threw herself at her.

- Where have you been?! We were worried!

Leila grabbed her friend and pushed her away with her arms.

- Whoa, calm down... I just fell asleep up there.

- Asleep?" Zarune interjected angrily. "You don't realize how dangerous it is up here.

- You checked the tree, right?

- Have you forgotten the wivern? It's not just the monsters on the ground you have to watch out for.

- Sorry...

- Where did you sleep?" Aurora interjected.

- Where you left me, I fell asleep watching the sky.

- Impossible, when you didn't come back we went looking for you there and you weren't there.

Zarune crossed her arms.

- Yes, it was only because Kastrapa could sense you up there that we didn't turn the whole tree upside down to find you. We thought you wanted to be alone.

- Look... I'm fine, okay. How about we focus on what's important now?

Zarune sighed in annoyance before leaving, Aurora sighing in the same way leaving. Embarrassed, Leila followed them, but without apology. She was old enough to take care of herself.

While the climb up the tree was an ordeal, the descent was worse. It took them longer than Leila had thought and if they had to do this every morning and evening it would take them a long time to get to their destination.

As they all prepared to leave, the scouts had already left, Zarune called Leila and Aurora. As Leila and her friend approached, Zarune turned to Kastrapa.

- Tell them what you told me.

Kastrapa gave them a cautious look, especially Aurora, who had been pestering him the whole time they were travelling to learn her Weaving to find their friends and all the weavings he knew as well. He had refused, claiming that he was not a teacher and that if she wanted to learn she could go to Teclera to study at one of the academies. That they would accept a human was doubtful, but Aurora was enthusiastic about the idea, yet that didn't stop her from asking Kastrapa lots of questions.

Enough that he begged the princess to intervene, claiming he couldn't concentrate on finding the humans' prisms. Zarune, not fooled by this lie, agreed anyway after letting him stew a bit. She had convinced the young human not to disturb him further, but that she could watch in silence if she wanted to. Aurora was now watching with concentration every time Kastrapa made a weave, much to the Eldar's dismay. And to the amusement of Leila and Zarune.

Kastrapa turned to Leila, avoiding looking at his nemesis.

- The two Prisms I sense are to the south, from what I could tell they were relatively close together. However, this is no longer the case.

- One of the prisms has disappeared?" Aurora asked worriedly.

- No, they're still alive," Zarune reassured her immediately, before gesturing to Kastrapa to continue.

- Yes, in fact, they have separated, one has gone further south, closer to the mountains, while the other is heading north. It is possible to alter our current course to intercept the prism coming towards us.

- Good," Leila interjected. "What are we waiting for?

- Nothing, we're leaving," said Zarune.

With that the group set off again, Leila wanted them to pick up the pace but the trappers refused, arguing that it was too dangerous to rush. Not being able to go forward by herself Leila had to grudgingly agree.

Their day was very similar to the previous one, with a lot of detours, some fighting against the fauna and flora of the region. One particularly tough fight had to be made against a creeper that covered a large area of the forest. The Outer Weavers were the main contributors to this fight, namely Kastrapa and Aurora. The rest of the Eldar watched the surroundings, looking for any monster that might have been attracted. Only five Eldar around the Weavers protected them by slicing through the fast-moving vines that tried to catch them to choke them to death.

Kastrapa weaved fire with skill, burning all approaching vines. But his main attack was a kind of gas that killed some of the vegetation, which he had linked with a wind weave, it took the form of a poisonous wind that directly darkened the vines, which turned brown, before falling to the ground lifeless.

He asked Aurora not to throw the fireballs she had made, lest the fire should spread to the forest floor and start a fire. He used fire sparingly, and his control over his fire was fine enough that he put it out as soon as he decided to. Yet to Kastrapa's surprise, Aurora had achieved the same mastery of fire as the Eldar, she had even managed to recreate the poisoned wind after observing it. Aurora's poison wind was slower and less powerful, but the fact that she had managed it had impressed Kastrapa.

Leila had done nothing, though she had thought of using Dune Fallen to shoot flaming arrows, a memory she thought she had buried deep had taken away her desire to help.

If going through that part of the forest where the creeper had taken up residence took them less time than if they had bypassed the area, it still took them much longer than they had hoped.

And the subsequent encounter with a panther with multi-coloured skin the size of a rhinoceros that gave off a smell that made Leila dizzy was almost a disaster.

- Hold your breath! shouted one of the Eldar

Leila threw herself to the side, as she saw one of the Eldar being thrown by the monster, fortunately, he had managed to protect himself from its claws. The beast was already covered in arrows, all around its head, making a necklace, but none had hit its head, Leila wove fire into Dune Fallen and fired, the panther avoided her shot which froze in a tree, Aurora quickly arrived and extinguished the fire with her Weave.

The monster screamed again in anger before trying to escape.

- Let it go," Zarune shouted. "We're not here for that.

The few Eldar who tried to stop the beast stopped in disappointment.

- A multicoloured panther," Dereur murmured in wonder. "Too bad..."

- Another time, Dereur. Perhaps we'll return to the region at the end of the war.

- That would be nice, Zarune, there's plenty of hunting to be done here.

Leila's mind was still clouded by the smell of the panther and she tried to clear her head.

- Why am I so dizzy, is it the panther?

- Yes," Dereur replied. Multicoloured panthers don't hunt like other felines, instead, they lure their prey with the feasting scent they emit, once close this scent confuses the mind of the one who smells it.

- What a terrible animal." Aurora murmured.

- But beautiful." Dereur replied enviously. "And especially rare, the skin of a multicoloured panther would be a gift worthy of a Head of Household, plus the scent that the skin emits will remain partly present."

As Zarune checked to see if the rest of the Eldars were safe to continue, Leila agreed with Dereur's words, if finding their friends hadn't been the priority Leila would have gone after the feline, to make him her trophy.

It was towards the end of the day that Kastrapa approached them.

- The person with the prism is not far away. It is possible to reach him today, but that would mean travelling at night. It would be extremely dangerous. I say we stop here for the night and intercept him in the morning.

Zarune frowned in concentration. Seeing Leila's insistent look, she shook her head.

- Too dangerous.

- What if something happens to her while we're waiting here?

- What if something happens to us? No Leila, you underestimate the forest at night. If we get eaten by whatever's out there at night, there's no point in rushing.

- But...

- Whoever it is has managed to survive this far, let's trust their ability to survive another night.

Displeased, Leila forced herself to remain silent. Turning away, Zarune announced that they would stop for the night. As on the previous day they set up camp in a tree, but unlike the previous night, Leila stayed with the rest of the camp. They ate in silence, night soon covering their camp, the guard tours being given and Leila not being one of them, she lay down silently in one of the Eldar camouflage tents.

She got up before dawn, the Eldars must have felt the same expectation and were also getting up. Shortly afterwards, when the first light of the sun had not yet appeared, they were descending from the tree into the night. The morning chill was strong enough for Leila's breath to be visible.

As she set foot on the forest floor, a faint ray of sunlight managed to get through the foliage. Soon they were on their way again. In a few hours, they would find one of the missing.

Annoyed, Leila shot a small, bald, grey creature with small, sharp teeth in the eye with an arrow. Leila would have been happy to challenge these monsters, but being so close to one of her human comrades made her impatient.

Aurora's flashes of lightning, risking attracting even more monsters, showed that she was doing the same.

A few minutes later, they had managed to get rid of the twenty or so monsters that had thrown themselves at them in a wild abandon.

- A small nest, we were lucky.

Heard Leila say Zarune. Indifferently she said.

- Let's go.

An hour later, one of the scouts came trotting up. Leila and Aurora approached Zarune to hear her report.

- We've found her.

- Who found her?

- The young woman, Marie.

Leila looked intently at the scout. She asked.

- Why didn't you bring her back here?

The man turned to her, before turning back to the princess.

- She is a prisoner of a group of satyrs. And a pack of wolves is following them.

Zarune closed her eyes in dismay. She slowly opened her eyes again.

- How was she?

The Eldar remained silent before slowly resuming.

- Surprisingly she looks fine, we can't be sure, we didn't dare get too close, but from what we saw she wasn't mistreated.

- That's strange...

- What does it mean? Leila asked, a boiling fury brewing.

Zarune hesitated before turning to her human friends.

- The Satyrs... don't hunt for food, but they do sometimes kidnap young men and women. Especially young women.

Aurora is hiccupped in horror.

- When are we going? Leila asked calmly.

The scout continued.

- They're heading north, if we're quick we can intercept them, if we ambush them we can take out some of the wolves before they spot us.

Zarune crossed her arms and tapped her arm with two fingers, thinking.

- How many exactly are there, and how many satyrs?

- A small pack of about a dozen big wolves, and there are six satyrs. Some of them were wounded, they must have encountered a threat on their way.

- This is all very strange... This is not the usual behaviour of a group like this.

- They are satyrs, your highness, whatever their reason, it will not be a loss to eliminate a group of them.

- Yes, regroup, then we'll move forward to prepare the ambush.

- At your orders, your highness.

Regrouping, the Eldar and the two humans prepare themselves. After a thirty-minute walk, they took up positions hidden behind the trees and the large roots on the ground, some of them bigger than an ordinary tree. Some of them climbed up the trees and using their clothing seemed to disappear against the tree trunk. Leila could see Zarune in the distance to her right, who had already notched an arrow, but not yet bandaged. Aurora was on the other side preparing a weave. Leila did the same, she needed to be quick, but loud enough for the noise to stun their target, so she prepared a lightning arrow, as did Aurora and Kastrapa.

Then they waited.

Not even twenty minutes later she could hear them approaching. The satyrs mastered the internal weave, making them stronger and faster, some even mastered the external weave even though they were rare. If one of them invoked an external weave they would have to kill it first.

She heard the wolves approaching, waiting for the signal, she simply wove an augmentation to allow her to accentuate her hearing, as soon as the signal was given she would have to release the weave so that she would not suffer same spell as their target.

A hooting sounded.

Leila moved from where she was hidden, having already chosen her target she released her lightning arrow-bolt, she heard her companions do the same. Summoning the usual arrow-wind, she fired again as her first stroke hit its target.

The sound of the lightning was deafening, Leila heard barks of fear and screams of rage. She took a first look at the satyrs, they were big and ugly, small for men but still of good size, the upper part of their body was that of a man and the lower part that of a goat, they were naked and had horns on their heads of varying size.

One of them came towards her, they were fast, Leila fired a shot that hit the beast in the shoulder. The monster grunted but did not stop. Leila had time to fire two more shots, hitting it in the torso and stomach, yet the monster continued to run towards her, the mace that served as its weapon raised to strike. Determined, Leila weaved in her legs in force, drew her dagger, avoided the blow and cut the left ligament of the monster's knee. The monster fell forward, carried by its momentum.

Leila dropped her dagger and fired twice in quick succession, the first arrow hitting its skull, the second its heart. The monster stopped moving.

Leila jumped to the side, dodging a wolf that lunged at her, before she could react an arrow slammed into the side of the beast, killing it instantly. Thanking in spirit the one who had helped her, Leila looked around for her next target.

It was no use, the battle was won. They hadn't given them a chance, more than half of the wolves were dead as soon as the battle started. The others followed very quickly, the satyrs were no luckier, none of them even got to one of the attackers. Only the one Leila had killed had time to get close enough to be dangerous.

Seeing that everyone was safe, Leila moved closer to the human who had not moved from the centre of the battle. As Leila checked for any injuries, or signs of abuse, Marie spoke up.

- Hello Leila, Aurora.

She smiled at them, before asking gently.

- Why did you kill my protectors?

Aurora moved closer to Marie, hesitating to touch her.

- Marie! You're... fine.

Marie looked at Aurora calmly.

- I'm fine, I'm glad to see you both again.

Aurora gave Leila a frightened look. She was worried. Has Marie's mind been broken...?

As the other Eldar made a security circle around them, Zarune moved closer.

- Marie, did the Satyrs hurt you?

Perplexed, Marie turned her head slightly towards her.

- No, they were nice. It's a shame they're dead.

Unperturbed by the young human's reaction, Zarune continued.

- Why were you with them?

- They were my protectors, taking me back to the nearest Eldar village.

- They were taking you..." Leila began before Zarune grabbed her arm to keep her quiet.

- Tell me Marie, who told them to take you to an Eldar village.

- Almaeris.

- Who is she?

- She's a dryad.

There was silence between the Eldars.

- I see. Did you promise her that we would reward her if she brought you back to us?

Just as Marie was about to open her mouth to answer, she closed it again, seeming to remember something and turned to Leila. Still with her slight smile on her lips.

- Jonah was with me.

- Jonah?!

- Yes, he did a bad thing, so Almaeris kept her with her.

Turning to Zarune, she said.

- He asked me to give you a message.

- Tell me.

- He would like the Emerald Kingdom to intercede on his behalf, to free him from Almaeris. In my opinion, he should be punished, but I would be happy to see him again.

- What could she..." again Zarune stopped Leila from finishing her question.

- Could you tell us where this dryad Marie's court is?

- Over there. Two days' walk," smiled Marie, pointing south.

One of the Eldar then intervened.

- Your Highness, if they've been walking for only two days, we'll easily find the traces of their passage.

Nodding, Zarune turned to his officers

- Dereur, you and the others will escort Marie back to the ship, and you will take five of my brother's men with you.

Glancing at Leila, she knew she wasn't going to let her send her away. Turning to Aurora, she said.

- Can you take them home? They may need a weaver to protect them.

Aurora opened her mouth to refuse, before giving a worried look to Marie who had started humming softly, waiting for their decision. She finally nodded.

Dereur then intervened.

- Zarune, a dryad...

Raising a hand to silence him, the princess said.

- She will submit to me, she will not dare to do otherwise.

Waving to the trappers, she continued.

- Let's go, the sooner we get there, the less time Jonah will be in the dryad's clutches.

Worried about Zarune's intensity when she learned of the dryad's existence, Leila followed the rest of the group in silence. She had just enough time to say goodbye to the two humans, whispering to Aurora to be careful, before leaving.

They had a dryad to face, and Jonah to save.